Thursday, 25 July 2013

Securing space for your business in London

Image: freedigitalphotos

The cosmopolitan city of London is among the most vibrant business centres of the world. Merchants, lawyers, manufacturers, import and export entrepreneurs, and distributors have established successful firms here. While the city offers the best base for a profitable business due to its top notch infrastructure system, finding space for new entrants might be hard.

Just like other major cities, you can identify streets in London with a specific commodity or service. As a new comer, you will have to carry out some homework about the street that is most suitable for your business. For instance, music and video producers are more likely to be successful if they set up shop along Clerkenwell and Shoreditch streets, where their contemporiaries are located.

If you are a finance specialist, then you should check out if you can find space in the buildings around London Bridge and Liverpool Street. These are areas that are notable for large banks and financial services providers. Small entrepreneurs might find the competition for space here too strong, but you can still manage to get an office in the high storey buildings.

Consider exhausting options within Mayfair locality and central London before launching elsewhere if you want to do business in the hospitality industry. Major restaurants, hotels and high end cafeterias are the major investors in these areas. This may be attributed the high number of tourists visiting the museums in the vicinity. There are notable numbers of boutique establishments too targeting high spenders.

West End is among the most popular areas for business in London because of its mix of businesses. It is a major station for trains, and most streets meet here making it a very crowded place. You will therefore find apparel shops, multinationals, restaurants with cultural orientations such as those specialized in Italian, French or Chinese cuisines. Entertainment joints are also popular here..

Some people prefer to have their business in more serene places like North or South London. The advantage with such places is that they are occupied by wealthy personalities. For instance, if you chose to put up a firm office in Tottenham, you will be in proximity to the tube stations of Piccadily and Victoria Underground. A warehouse can also flourish in this locality because of the nearby Heathrow airport.

Numerous agencies are available to help both international and local investors find perfect offices within London. The internet has even made it easier for entrepreneurs to research and locate the most appropriate areas and make bookings online according to their budgets. You can do instant bookings even of you are located in outside Britain, so long as you have your legal requirements taken care of.

Factors that determine the price of space in London include size, the floor of building you want to operate from, distance from tube stations and city centre. Shared spaces can go for as low as GBP 250 per person for a month to as high as several thousands of pounds for large enterprises. It does not, therefore, matter whether you want to house a single person or 500 staffs, you can still find space although at expensive rates.